Showing results by author "MAX CHINA" in All Categories

Two men. One dark secret. A mystery buried for two decades. John Mason thought he’d left the past behind—until an old friend drags him back into a deadly game. As long-buried memories resurface, so do dangerous questions: What really happened to Julie Sanderson, the girl who vanished all those years ago? And why does Jim, once a mentor, now seem determined to pin the past on him? To protect those he loves, John must confront the truth. But in a world where trust is shattered and loyalties are tested, how far will he go before he loses everything? A gripping psychological thriller about ...

He saves her, but can she save him? This is no fairy tale... Amidst the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands, mysteries of the past converge with the present, weaving a tale of lost love, haunting legacies, and redemption. Jack Mathers is drawn into a suspenseful journey, seeking answers about his mother's death and his father's bizarre behaviour. As ancient folklore involving enigmatic Highlanders, sinister wolves, and ethereal cranes resurfaces, the Mathers family is plunged deeper into a supernatural enigma. "The Crane Wife" by Max China is a heart-wrenching exploration of love, ...

London, 2006 DCI John Kennedy is weeks away from retirement when the 1983 disappearance of a young nurse, Kathy Bird, is reignited by a high-profile cold-case feature on Crimewatch—unearthing a new witness and pulling Kennedy into the hunt for a killer who has evaded justice for far too long. But this isn’t just any predator. Cunning, methodical, and relentless, he has spent a lifetime perfecting his crimes. His web stretches back to the Summer of Love, 1967, where the first pieces of this nightmare were set in motion. As Kennedy digs deeper, the past collides with the present. Bruce, ...

Some doors should never be opened... When Frank and Shelley Cassidy move into an isolated house in Lower Graces, Essex, they hope for a fresh start. But the rusting radio tower looming over their land is just the first omen of something deeply wrong. Beneath their feet, in the house's hidden basement, a locked room bears a chilling warning: Do NOT turn on the light. Frank, an electrical engineer with a troubled past, can't resist the lure of the unknown. One flick of a switch, and he vanishes—trapped in a nightmarish limbo where time is no longer linear, and reality itself bends to the ...

When David McClure buys a second-hand laptop from a Camden Market stall, he’s looking for anonymity, not connection. A way to disappear quietly online. Instead, he finds a message waiting for him. It isn’t addressed to his name. It isn’t dated. And it seems to know far more about him than it should. As the messages continue, David becomes trapped in a tightening psychological exchange—one that blurs the line between coincidence and design, sender and recipient, choice and inevitability. Each response pulls him further into a conversation he never agreed to start, with consequences ...

A Tangled Web of Obsession, Deception, and Violence Unravels in Morocco When British journalist Carla Black travels to Essaouira with a provocative book and a dangerous plan, she hopes to lure a serial killer out of hiding and into the arms of justice. Her target? William Boule—a violent, narcissistic predator with a thirst for control and a deeply buried grudge. But in the sun-bleached alleyways of Morocco, Carla’s scheme ignites a deadly game of cat and mouse… and she may not be the one calling the shots. Haunted by psychic visions and a dark past intertwined with Boule’s, Miller ...

Seven years after his brother’s death, Luke Masterson is still holding himself together—one day at a time. On the anniversary of the tragedy that tore his family apart, Luke reports for what should be an ordinary morning shift at a quiet Essex pub. He’s counting the days until he can leave England behind and follow the backpacking route his brother never got the chance to take. Then a stranger arrives. As the pub empties and the morning drags on, Luke senses something isn’t right. With no one else around and the outside world slipping out of reach, a routine shift turns into a test ...

Time is not just something we’re passing through. Sometimes, it lies in wait for us. In The Gift of Time, five short stories explore what happens when people find themselves caught between past and present, love and loss, memory and survival. A new homeowner ignores a warning hidden in his basement and discovers that some doors lead backward instead of out. A restless ghost relives the same moment again and again, searching for the one choice that will finally bring peace. A young man living in the shadow of his dead brother comes face to face with violence and must decide who he will ...

On Easter Sunday, a man lies broken at the bottom of a hospital service road, unable to move, unheard and unseen. Then a nurse finds him. Verity is calm and unwavering. She knows his name. She knows his fears. She tells him she cannot leave his side, because if she does, he will die. As the night stretches on, Jeremiah drifts in and out of consciousness, slipping into memories he has spent a lifetime avoiding: a childhood accident, a family lost, a truth about himself he never fully understood. Meanwhile, the nurse who keeps vigil beside him begins to remember fragments of her own past — ...

A missing woman. A forbidden experiment. A time loop with no way out. Josh Baines never meant to break the rules of time travel. When his colleague, Becky Leigh, begs for a chance to see her late father one last time, he reluctantly hands her the prototype—a mobile phone capable of slipping through time. She promises to return in two days. She never comes back. With Becky vanished without a trace, Josh finds himself at the centre of a police investigation, accused of a crime he didn’t commit. No body, no evidence—just an impossible mystery. Years turn into decades... What happened to ...

When Frank, Shelley and their two young children move into the home of their dreams, they discover a problem with the cellar. It isn't long before they find out why the house was sold at a knock-down price...'I really loved this. In just a few pages, the author manages to create a unique atmosphere of fear and confusion...' Source: USA Reviews

CORNWALL, ENGLAND 1967. In the midst of the summer of love, two innocent souls bear witness to an unspeakable act of brutality. One, a mere seven-year-old boy, watches in horror from fifty yards away, while the other, a young girl, glimpses the chilling scene from her bedroom in Ireland. LONDON, 2006. As the specter of retirement looms over DCI John Kennedy, there remains one haunting enigma that refuses to yield its secrets: the baffling disappearance of a young nurse named Kathy, a puzzle that has eluded him for over two decades. The desperate hunt for answers unfolds on national ...

CORNWALL, 1967. Two children witness a brutal act—one a seven-year-old boy watching from the clifftops, the other a girl glimpsing it from her bedroom in Ireland. Neither speaks. Both are changed. LONDON, 2006. Nearing retirement, DCI John Kennedy is still haunted by one case he never cracked: the disappearance of young nurse Kathy. A national Crimewatch reenactment retraces her last steps and jolts the case alive. A new witness emerges. The trail points not to a lone tragedy, but to a patient predator. As Kennedy follows the leads, he’s drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse that spans ...

A mutinous past. A monstrous escape. A mind on the brink. 1987: In the dead of night, two children flee a brutal orphanage. Only one survives. Decades later, Timothy Salter lives in silence and squalor, haunted by the sister he lost and the secrets buried with her. 2014: Deep in the English countryside, a notorious inmate with a taste for flesh escapes from a secure psychiatric hospital during a mysterious solar flare. Wolfe is more than a killer—he believes he's the heir to Jack the Ripper’s legacy, and he’s not finished yet. As chaos spreads through Copse Hall, an institution hiding...